Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Age is a critical factor in immune responses to infection. In malaria, severe disease risk increases with age in non-immune individuals. Malaria severity is in part driven by inflammation, but mechanisms contributing to age-dependent disease risk are incompletely understood. We assessed inflammatory cytokines during malaria in non-immune children and adults, and innate cell responses in vitro to malaria parasites in naive children and adults. We show during malaria age is associated with increased inflammatory chemokines CCL2, CCL3, CXCL8, CXCL9, along with CRP, and IDO, which associate with symptoms. In naive individuals, classical monocyte and Vδ2 + γδ T cells from adults have higher inflammatory cytokine production, and transcriptional activation following stimulation with parasites. Classical monocyte responses in adults are dominated by CCL2, while in children increased IL10 and enrichment of IL10 signaling pathways is detected. Findings identify age-dependent cellular mechanisms that play crucial roles in driving inflammatory responses in malaria.
Source: Nature Communications
Language: English
Topic: Malaria Research and Control
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $6,990
Awards: Mechanisms and targets of antibody-complement interactions that neutralize malaria, Manipulating T follicular helper cells to improve human malaria vaccines, Pathophysiology and treatment of malaria in our region, Research Towards Vaccines for Tropical Diseases, T-follicular helper cell subsets that induce protective anti-Plasmodium falciparum antibodies, Tropical diseases: Translating discoveries into better health, Discovering novel immune targets for treating infectious diseases
OpenAlex ID: W4414652192